Conventionally, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. H05-221204A, a pneumatic tire (radial pneumatic tire) is disclosed in which both ends of a carcass layer extending in the tire circumferential direction are butt spliced, and both ends of an inner liner layer arranged on a tire inner side of this carcass layer, made of impermeable rubber, and extending in the tire circumferential direction are lap spliced, and in which there is a region where the carcass layer butt splice and the inner liner layer lap splice are overlapped.
Also conventionally, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-286059A, a pneumatic tire manufacturing method is disclosed in which tire assembly components are formed by dividing the carcass layer and the inner liner layer in two in the tire width direction, and these tire assembly components are combined, and the belt plies and tread portion are added and the tire is assembled and vulcanized.
The strip members, such as the carcass layer and the inner liner layer and the like, which extend in the circumferential direction, both ends thereof reaching each of the bead portions, are configured so that both ends in the tire circumferential direction are joined (spliced), as in the pneumatic tire disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. H05-221204A described above. However, when the carcass layer and the inner liner layer are divided in two in the tire width direction as in the pneumatic tire disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-286059A and the tire assembly components are joined, the relative positions of the joints of each strip member that are opposite each other in the tire width direction may be deviated from each other. In this case, there is a possibility that the uniformity will deteriorate due to non-uniformity of the force acting with respect to the tire width direction (Lateral Force Variation: LFV), in particular in the tread region between the maximum width in the tire width direction of the belt layer. In recent years, it has become desirable to resolve this type of problem in order to further improve tire performance.